Chapter 15
She was being followed. Aikaterine honestly could not see what was so different about this girl, Katheren. She was just a normal Chosen One, no more powerful than the others, even less of a threat for she was completely untrained, her powers all over the place... that was, to everyone but her. Aikaterine always had the power to see into one's soul, to see the strength of one's aura. She knew something that no other knew, not even another Ancestor.
Katheren Whitney was an Old Soul, a very Old Soul. Aikaterine had seen her past lives many times throughout the years, she had even been present in her own life. Most people thought that the age of one's soul did not matter, but she knew differently, she saw that in each life time, the soul became stronger and stronger, their aura growing to a limitless capability. Katheren's was about three times as strong as the ones that she had seen in her life time and the strongest one that she had seen had been Katheren's past life.
Something was different about this life though. The Coventry boy, Daren, he did something with Katheren's aura. Since the time that the two had been separated, Katheren's aura had seemed much dimmer, weaker. At first, Aikaterine had just blamed it on the tumult of Katheren's emotions, but now she could sense that it went much deeper than that. Even though she had seen them a few times in both her living life and her afterlife, Aikaterine was surprised that she hadn't noticed that the two were Soul Mates. Daren was even close to as old as Katheren- she seemed to be about a half a century older- but he still had a strong aura, gained from contact with Katheren's.
Soul Mates had always been something that intrigued Aikaterine, from even back when she was a child. Soul Mates could draw upon the other's aura, while at the same time making both of theirs stronger since their souls were intertwined, their aura became of the same fate when the two were together. Aikaterine had never seen an incidence quite like this one before.
Humans always looked for a way to pretty things up and to a witch like her, it was disgusting. Life was not pretty. It was as simple as that. Humans automatically assumed that since two peoples' souls were intertwined that the two would 'fall in love' and that 'their love would overcome anything', pretty sounding but completely wrong. One would be spiritually drawn to the other, but the connection went into no other part of their life. Most could not stand the connection, it either drove them crazy or they stayed far away from each other. But, Katheren and Daren were different because, of the ones that Aikaterine had seen, the two were the only ones that had actually been in love... which made them dangerously strong together, too strong. And a break when they were so combined would prove to be un-survivable for them.
Aikaterine uselessly tried to get Katheren's attention but she knew it was futile. Ancestors usually did not spend more time with the Chosen One than needed. She was different though, as the youngest Ancestor, she remembered what it was like to be alive, how powerful emotions were, so that made her the most empathic of them, more protective of them. She was also painfully aware that unless the Ancestors were called upon, they could take no part in the Chosen One's life.
Usually, she could accept that rule... unless the Chosen Ones were in danger. Katheren was, if the person that was following her caught up to her, then her life could very well be over. She could not see her Soul Mate until the warlock after her was dead or her chances of surviving would be cut in half.
Katheren:
I rubbed my temples, the soothing movement doing nothing to relieve the pounding in my head. I was going through my family's grimoire but since it was in Latin, a dead- and if it wasn't dead yet it was close to it- language wasn't an easy thing to do. Aikaterine had been teaching me Latin when I summoned her, but other than that, I was translating by use of an old Latin to Old English dictionary. I was so not having fun.
I had only found three spells that I could possibly use against Sara and I was nearly a fourth through the over a thousand page book, that really wasn't what I was hoping for. I had been at this translating for nearly a week, it was just taking too long, even with the Ancestor's help.
I put the bookmark into the grimoire and stood up, pacing around the room, thinking. I'd been here for little over a week. I had to be on the move again if I didn't want to be found. I put the few clothes that weren't in my suitcase back into my suitcase and put the grimoire and my notes in my laptop case. I stopped down at the main building to give the motel manger back the room key and to tell him that I was checking out.
I froze as I stepped back outside, half way to my car. I shivered, I'd felt... this feeling before, it was the same feeling that I'd had months ago, at my grandmother's house when she had begun to train me, right after I had met Samson and his sisters. As suddenly as the feeling appeared, it was gone.
I took off running for my car, I threw it in gear and headed from Salt Lake City, Utah to Casper, Wyoming. I didn't know what, or who, that was, but there was no way that I was going to stick around to find out.
Three hours later, I was checked into a motel in Casper, after I was sure that no one could have followed me if they were trying to tail me. I admitted to myself that was I was being paranoid, but I at least felt better about doing it. I checked out the windows twice before putting a shield around the room and a detector spell around the doors and windows. In theory, no one could enter the room but 'people with good hearts' and I would know whoever entered and when from the detector spell, that is at least what Aikaterine told me.
I closed my eyes and summoned Aikaterine. "You should have me in an inscribed pentagram," she said irritably.
I shrugged. "That is only to stop spirits from possessing my body or breaking free of my spell and wreaking havoc on the public. You can posses me easier than any other ghost, as far as you told me, and you won't wreak havoc on anyone because you're not like that, so that is a moot point."
She glared at me. "You are so utterly naïve!"
Before, that would have hurt, but I still couldn't feel anything. "Obviously not 'utterly' since I am still alive. How do I find out if someone is following me?"
She looked dumbstruck. "How do you know that someone is following you?"
"I was back at the motel in Utah and I had this... feeling, I had the same feeling nearly a year ago at my grandmother's house."
She frowned as if we were talking about two totally different things. "From what you are describing, you are not being tracked, but you are being followed by a spell. If there is enough, high level witches, they might be able to locate a person and watch them for a specific amount of time. The only way to prevent that is to either work on your mental shields or put a magical shield around yourself, but the latter will drain your aura if you are not carefully monitoring it."
I grimaced. I needed my full aura at all times since I would never know when she would come after me, she said that she would kill me next July seventh on the Blessing Moon, it had been four months since that threat, it was the end of October now, I had a little under eight months to get ready to face her. Sara thought that she was invincible and she was just playing with me, I had a gut feeling that she was watching me and if I got too close to the point where I could beat her, I had no doubt that Sara would kill me right then and there. "How do I put up mental shields?"
Aikaterine grinned. "Meditation." She frowned again. "Oh, and the warlock, she is not the only one tracking you."
"What do you-" I broke off when I saw that she had faded into mist then completely disappeared. She had always done that when she had been helping me train, give me some cryptic comment then disappear before I could ask her what it meant. It was driving me crazy.
I sat down heavily on the old, worn motel bed, wondering who else besides Sara and anyone who worked for her would be after me.
I froze, the only logical possibility filling me with nausea. I had thought that I had kept him away by dealing him verbal blow after blow. It didn't work. Daren was coming after me. And he just might get killed trying to save me.
Two hours later, I figured that I was failing pretty miserably on the whole meditating thing. I knew that I had to keep moving, especially since he was trying to find me now, but I had thought that being able to shield myself from spells was more important, but not when it was taking this much time. I remembered that Aikaterine telling me before that the whole point of meditating- or at least the kind that she taught me- was to clear my mind and just focus on one thing, then to be able to slowly let things from the outside world to ease into my mind until I had just as much distractions as I could handle while keeping focused on that one thing and being able to function. I hadn't first understood what she meant, but after a while, I understood it. I just couldn't do it.
I went to my bag and, after throwing together something for diner, got out the herbs that in my grimoire said would be able to mask my trail to those who were looking for me. After I had put it together, I put everything bag into my bag , and grabbed the grimoire from the bedside table, after I said the right spell, the mixture glowed, then went back to what it normally looked like. I lifted the bowl up and cautiously smelled the mixture. It smelled like used gym socks. I plugged my nose with one hand and then dumped the mixture into my mouth and swallowed it as quickly as I could. I gagged a few times, but I knew that I had to keep it down otherwise the spell would be useless and I would have to do it all over again.
A few minutes later, I laid back on the old motel back, my eyes wide and focused on the old, cracked ceiling. Even though I knew I shouldn't, I let my mind drift. For the first time since I left, I let myself think about him. I still couldn't say his name, let alone think it, it still hurt too much, but I could think about him as long as I didn't think about us. He was coming to find me, I knew it instinctively and Aikaterine confirmed it.
I didn't understand that though. I had planned what I said to him carefully, it had been what would hurt him, everything that I could think of to do that except I couldn't deal the final blow, the biggest lie, I hadn't been able say that didn't love him. I did, still do. Thinking back on it now, I hadn't really said much that would hurt the normal person, but I new that he hadn't been so sure about our relationship, he had always thought that I wasn't sure that I that I loved him and that I could leave at any time. Just like that. Gone without a trace. And that was exactly how I aimed my verbal attack at him.
So now, it made no sense that he would come after me now. Maybe he didn't think anything about me coming back to him or anything about my feeling, just about my safety. Or maybe it was that he knew that I had been lying about my reasons for leaving. Either way, he couldn't find me, he would be dead if he did.
Lethargy began to drift over me and I closed my eyes. My head knew it was wrong, but my heart didn't care; that night, I dreamed of him.